Cold Case: Difference between revisions

Cold Case
File:Cold case cast.jpg From left to right: Det. Nick Vera, Lt. John Stillman, Det. Will Jeffries, Det. Lilly Rush and Det. Scotty Valens
Created by	Meredith Stiehm
Starring	Kathryn Morris Danny Pino John Finn Jeremy Ratchford Thom Barry Tracie Thoms
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	93 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 45 minutes
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 28, 2003 – present

Cold Case is an American hour-long fictional television show about a police division that specializes in investigating unsolved crimes. The show is set in the city of Philadelphia and first aired in September 2003.

Each episode begins with a flashback scene informing viewers of the featured year it takes place. A set of characters are revealed in a seemingly mundane situation. The viewer is then shown the corpse of the victim as he/she was found. It is always one of the people introduced in the previous seemingly-innocent scene.

The show then flashes to the present day. The detectives of the Homicide Division of the Philadelphia Police Department are told that new evidence has turned up in an old case gone cold in several cases:

• New evidence has come to light;
• The victim’s physical remains have been discovered;
• A witness has decided to come forward, etc.

All or any of these cause the detectives give the cold case a new look and begin researching the victim and interviewing their friends, acquaintances, and family.

The friends, family, co-workers, etc. who were introduced in the flashback at the beginning of the episode have aged (in one case, a six-year-old witness to the crime is interviewed by the detectives when she is 94). Gradually, the detectives gather enough evidence to determine the killer, who most of the time is then arrested.

At the end of each episode, the detectives mark the case solved, while an apparition of the murdered person looks on.

The problems in the detectives' personal lives are also featured, though the main emphasis of every story is on the victim and the search for the killer. Most notably, Detective Lilly Rush grew up in a severely dysfunctional, poverty-stricken home with an alcoholic mother.

Critical reaction to Cold Case has been mostly favorable, citing its distinctive use of "flashback" scenes-within-scenes, period music, and uplifting storylines.

Cold Case is also notable for double-casting: it will cast a young actor for the flashback sequences and an older actor for the shots in the present, and cut back and forth between the two, to show how the character has aged. The episode "One Night" managed to triple-cast one character, showing him in the present day, when he committed his murder, and when he was a teenager. If the murder takes place within the recent past, i.e. one to five years earlier, the same actors are often used with subtle changes in appearance and with a few exceptions -- infants to adolescents. If the murder takes place in the distant past, i.e. 15 years plus, different actors with a few exceptions are used -- e.g. adult persons who are not likely to age significantly other than gray hairs.

Typically once the murderer is revealed, their confession is depicted in one final flashback in which the murder is shown. The episode then ends with a montage (with no dialogue) of the killer(s) being arrested, as well as the fates of other characters from that era, showing all of them in their current appearance, but briefly flashing back to their younger selves, and finally Detective Lilly Rush or someone else close to the victim seeing a vision of the grateful-looking victim standing nearby, who then quickly vanishes (this aspect of the show is meant to represent Rush's imagination, since the show is not about the supernatural). There have been numerous variations on this pattern, however:

• In "Our Boy Is Back—Useless Cats" Det. Vera sees the victim, mainly because he worked the original investigation.
• In "Badlands" two of the victims are seen by Det. Jeffries who happened to be a friend of theirs.
• In "Glued" Det. Stillman sees the victim because he also worked the original case.
• In "Disco Inferno" the victim re-appears to dance with his girlfriend/dancing partner.
• In "Discretion" Valens sees the victim, largely because most of the main characters including the victim are of Puerto Rican heritage, like Valens.
• In "A Perfect Day" Rush sees the victim but so does her surviving twin sister. The girls embrace while facing the sunset.
• In "Cargo" Stillman and the girl whom the victim was trying to save see him.
• In "The Good Bye Room" the victim's daughter sees her.
• In "Lover's Lane" the victim's boyfriend sees her.
• In "Rampage" the parents of one of the shooters see the two boys.
• In "Yo, Adrian" the "Adrian" character sees the victim.
• In "Knuckle up" the victims father and sister see the victim.
• In "Saving Sammy" Brent (the autistic son) and his sister see their parents.
• In "Forever Blue" the cop's partner sees the victim.
• In "A Time To Hate" Lilly sees the Victim however 3 other people see the victim: The Victim's Boyfriend, the cop that walked away from the crime, and the Victim's Mother.
• In "Stalker" the daughter sees her entire murdered family.
• In "Lonely Hearts" Vera, Stillman, and Lilly see the victims(Vera sees one of the victims, then Stillman, and then Lilly)
• In "The Key" the victim's daughter sees the victim.
• In "Strange Fruit" Det. Jeffries sees the victim both in his present form and again as a 12-year old because he is the one who found the body.
• In "8:03 am" Det.Miller sees the victims.
• In "Offender" the boys parents see the victim.
• In"The River" the son sees the victim
• In "Ravaged" Vera sees the victim

• In "Mindhunters" the killer leaves the station because he is smart enough not to leave anything of evidentiary value behind.
• In "The Woods" the same killer choose to die fighting and is shot by Lily, suicide by cop.
• In "Resolutions" the killer writes out a confession during a standoff with police then he shoots himself.
• In "Fireflies" a girl was missing for 31 years and comes home and embraces her parents after not seeing them for so long. She also sees the best friend she left so many years ago. However the actual culprit is still arrested for attempted murder.
• In "Time to Crime" the victim looks disappointedly at Rush because the killer turned out to be close to her and she probably did not want them arrested.
• In "Late Returns" the victim looks from the staircase at Rush in disappointment because the real killer was going scot-free while someone else took the blame.
• In "Yo, Adrian" no one is arrested as it is revealed that it was the victim who paid off the referee to keep the fight going longer than normal. It was one of those cases of a man willing to die for a principle and self-respect of himself and the respect of others.
• In "Saving Sammy" the killer is arrested but so is the principal of the academy for autistic kids because the victims were in desperate need to save their son. Harvey, the principal, ripped Brent's parents off by trying to transfer them to Vermont. It can be argued that the proposed move to Vermont was the motive for the murders.
• In "Detention" the victim's death was ruled as manslaughter. The killer signs a document saying he accidentally pushed the victim off the school. However, Dawn's dad is arrested for sexually abusing his daughter.
• In "Stalker" the killer dies in a shootout at the station but not before seriously wounding Stillman and Rush.
• In "Torn" due to the age of the case no one is arrested as the killer died before the case was re-opened.
• In "Best Friends" no one is arrested as the victim's death turned out to have been a suicide pact instead of a murder, as originally believed.
• In "Fly Away", the DA declined to press charges due to what the person responsible for the victim's death had been through, however, the man who put them in that position was arrested.
• In "Boy in the Box", no one is arrested as the victim's death was not intentional, and those most responsible for it were passed away.
• In "The House", no one was arrested for the murder as the victim's death was accidental, however an arrest was made for a related crime.

Generally the majority of the victims are shown to be good people or truly innocent victims thus making the endings, in which the victims are seen one last time, rewarding for the victim's family and the viewer. There have been occasions where the victims were depicted as rather unlikable even despicable making the endings somewhat bittersweet:

• A manipulative sexual predator in "Greed",
• A child molester in "The Plan"
• A thug in "The House"
• An abusive mother in "The Woods"
• Mass shooters in "Rampage" who probably regret their actions judging by the way the turn their heads to the floor
• A split-personality woman in "Maternal Instincts"
• Another child molester in "Blackout".
• A con-artist in "Lonely Hearts"
• A ruthless and corrupt white-collar criminal in "Greed"

Interesting to note, most of the killings or crimes were either in the heat of the moment or accidentally and in some of those cases the viewer actually feels sorrow for the culprit. The aforementioned episodes seem to illustrate that point. The killings which are crimes of opportunity or premeditated, however, give us a clear picture of who the murderer is and what the viewer would like to see done to him or her.

The scenes showing the actual murders are the theme in most episodes with some notable exceptions, such as the Season 1 episode, "Our Boy Is Back", the Season 1 Finale "Lover's Lane" and the Season 4 Episode "Offender". In those scenes the viewers see the immediate events precipitating the murder but then the screen fades out just as the final act is about to happen. This is due to the heinousness of the underlying crime which is included with the murder. In the aforementioned episodes the crime is usually rape or sexual assault of an innocent child or woman.

One exception is the episode "Revenge" where the victim, who died of drowning, is last seen swimming across the water in an effort to get to his family. That scene fades as he is swimming into the night.

Each episode, during the flashbacks, will feature a different style of direction, whether it be the colors, lighting, shading, or camera angles. Flashbacks from an era such as the 1950s have been shown in black and white, an episode with a case from 1939 featured sepia-toned flashbacks, one episode set in the '80s used a split-screen style, while a case from 1990 ("Sleepover") was shot with an effect that resembled a home video camera. In the oldest cold case ever investigated by the team, a 1919 homicide, the flashbacks are seen in the vaudeville reel film style used at that time with a fade-in opening sequence.

Some popular films have served as inspiration for several episodes such as "Disco Inferno" (Saturday Night Fever), "Yo, Adrian" (Rocky), "Creatures of the Night" (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), "Detention" (The Breakfast Club), "Dog Day Afternoons" (Dog Day Afternoon), "Greed" (Wall Street), "The Sleepover" (Heathers), "Saving Patrick Bubley (Saving Private Ryan), "The Key" (The Ice Storm), "Forever Blue" (Brokeback Mountain), "Knuckle Up" (Fight Club) "Blood on the Tracks" (The Big Chill), "Shuffle, Ball, Change" (Footloose), and "Stand Up And Holler" (Mean Girls). Additionally, the episode "Bad Night" heavily referenced the movie Halloween as having possibly inspired a murder.

Two episodes featured flashbacks shown in widescreen format. Season 3's "Family" had flashbacks that were presented with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio while Season 4's "Blood on the Tracks" had flashbacks with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

The show's theme song is an excerpt from "Nara" by E.S. Posthumus with an introduction by series composer Michael A. Levine. Besides Levine's original music, each episode makes extensive use of era-appropriate music for flashbacks to the year in question. In an episode of a murder in 1994 (Detention), the episode featured references to Kurt Cobain and added grunge songs from the same era, a genre of music that Cobain had popularized. Six different episodes exclusively used the music of Johnny Cash, John Mellencamp , Bruce Springsteen, Tim McGraw, U2, and Bob Dylan, respectively. Also, there has been an episode featuring all Rocky Horror Picture Show songs, as well as an episode with all Cabaret songs.

One episode featured music from an era different than the one featured in the flashbacks. The episode "Blood on the Tracks", about former hippies turned yuppies, took place in 1981 but featured Bob Dylan's music from the 60s.

The episode that was taken the farthest back in Cold Case was the story of a suffragette who was murdered in 1919. This episode also features popular music of that year.

Rarely is the same song ever heard twice on the show. The sole exception being the fourth season episode Forever Blue which replayed The Monkees song "Daydream Believer" first heard in the third season episode Debut. This was due to the fact that "Daydream Believer" was a last-minute replacement as the producers had originally intended to use "Happy Together" by The Turtles in Forever Blue. The song "Landslide" has been used at the end of two episodes, though not the same version: A cover by The Smashing Pumpkins was used in the episode "Detention" while the original version recorded by Fleetwood Mac was used at the end of the episode "Fireflies".

In the 2006 season, the music aired on the show during some episodes has been sponsored by XM Satellite Radio, where music from the various years covered can be heard on XM's decade channels.

For detailed information on Cold Case characters see the main article: List of Cold Case characters

• Det. Lilly Rush played by Kathryn Morris
• Det. Scotty Valens played by Danny Pino (Rush's partner)
• Lt. John Stillman played by John Finn (Rush's mentor)
• Det. Will Jeffries played by Thom Barry
• Det. Nick Vera played by Jeremy Ratchford
• Det. Kat Miller played by Tracie Thoms (Season 3-)
• Det. Chris Lassing played by Justin Chambers (Episodes 1-4)

On May 2nd, 2007 one of the Cold Case detectives made a rare appearance outside of the series. In the CSI: NY episode "Cold Reveal", Danny Pino appeared as his Cold Case character Scotty Valens as he traveled to New York when it was discovered that CSI Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes) was connected to an unsolved case. Some of the CSI shows have crossed over with each other at some point (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY) but this is the first time that any one of the three shows has interacted with a character from Cold Case and acknowledged that they all exist in the same world. The CSI shows and Cold Case all air on CBS and are produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

In 1998, a similar Canadian series called Cold Squad debuted, several years before Cold Case. Fans of Cold Squad accuse the American series of copying the basic premise and characters of the Canadian version, and at one point the creators of Cold Squad launched legal action against the makers of Cold Case. Both shows air in Canada (and on the same network, CTV). Waking the Dead is a similar British TV series about a "Cold Case Squad", which first aired in 2000. Another BBC series, New Tricks, also features cold cases being reinvestigated by a team of retired detectives lead by a woman. The series was first shown on TV in 2003 and stars Amanda Redman, Dennis Waterman, James Bolam, and Alun Armstrong.

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A 2004 episode based on the "Boy in the Box" [1], a still-unsolved 1957 Philadelphia homicide, was criticized for giving viewers the false impression that the actual case had been solved.

This was not the only episode to use real events as inspiration. Some other episodes include:

• The Pilot episode "Look Again" was based on the Martha Moxley murder case in Greenwich, CT in 1975.
• "Our Boy Is Back" was based on the actual case of Troy Graves -- the infamous Center City Rapist.
• The first season episode "Disco Inferno" was based on the Station nightclub fire.
• The 4th season premiere "Rampage" was based on the Columbine High School massacre.
• "Love Conquers Al" was based on the 1995 murder of Adrianne Jones at the hands of Texas cadets Diane Zamora and David Graham.
• "Late Returns" was loosely based on the Chandra Levy case.
• "Maternal Instincts" was based on the real-life cold case of Cathleen Krauseneck.
• "Strange Fruit" featured shades of the Emmett Till murder. Emmett Till would later be mentioned in the episode "Fireflies".
• "Mindhunters" and "The Woods" were based on serial killer Robert Hansen.
• "Lover's Lane", the Season 1 finale, was loosely based on the tragic murder of 9-year-old Krystal Dawn Steadman.[2]
• "Lonely Hearts" was based on Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, a.k.a. "The Lonely Hearts Killers", who conned and killed women in the 1940s.[3]
• "Blackout" was based on the murder of Florence Unger.[4]
• "Stalker" was loosely based on the murder of the Huling family in Minnesota in 1978.[5]

• "Schadenfreude" was based on the Sam Sheppard case.

A listing of episodes in chronological order can be found at: List of Cold Case episodes

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Cold Case on CBS.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Country	Alternate title/Translation	TV Network(s)	Series Premiere	Weekly Schedule
United States	Caso Cerrado ("Closed Case")	CBS (new episodes) and Turner Network Television (reruns) (second audio program)	September 28 2003
Canada	In Quebec: Victimes du passé ("Victims of the Past")	CTV (English), Séries+ (French), CBS	September 28 2003
Argentina		Warner Channel
Australia		Nine Network		Wednesday 8.30pm
Austria	Cold Case – Kein Opfer ist je vergessen ("Cold Case - No victim is ever forgotten")	ORF1	January 17 2005
Belgium	Cold Case	Kanaal 2 RTL TVI
Brazil	Arquivo Morto ("Dead File")	Warner Channel, SBT	November 10 2003
Bulgaria	Забравени досиета ("Forgotten Case")	Season 1 on bTV Season 1 to present on Nova Television
Chile	Caso Cerrado ("Closed Case")	TVN
Croatia	Zaboravljeni slučaj ("Forgotten Case")	RTL Televizija	May 4 2004
Czech Republic	Odložené případy ("Deferred cases")	Nova	February 28 2007
Denmark	Cold Case	TV3
Finland	Todistettavasti syyllinen ("Proven Guilty")	MTV3
France	Cold Case : affaires classées ("Cold Case: Closed Cases")	Canal+ ; France 2
Germany	Cold Case - Kein Opfer ist je vergessen ("Cold Case - No victim is ever forgotten")	Kabel Eins (Season 1-3) and Pro Sieben (Season 4+)	June 9 2004
Greece	Ανεξιχνίαστες Υποθέσεις ("Unsolved Cases")	Star Channel	July 2 2007
Hong Kong	鐵證懸案 ("Irrefutable Evidences, Unsolved Cases")	World Channel of Asia Television Limited
Hungary	Döglött akták ("Dead Files")	RTL Klub
Iceland	Cold Case	Stöð 2	January 25 2004
Indonesia	Cold Case	TV7
Ireland		TG4
Israel	פשע מן העבר (Pesha Min He'avar) ("A Crime From The Past")	yesSTARS	October 23 2004
Italy	Cold Case: Delitti Irrisolti ("Cold Case: Unsolved Crimes")	Rai Due	March 12 2005
Japan	コールドケース 迷宮事件簿 (Kōrudo kēsu Meikyuu jikenbo) (Cold Case - Labyrinthine Case Records)	WOWOW
Mexico	Cold Case	Warner Channel
The Middle East	Cold Case	Dubai One and Net5		Tuesday on Dubai One KSA 20:00 | UAE 21:00
Netherlands	Cold Case	Net 5
New Zealand		TV ONE
Norway	Cold Case	TVNorge	March 18 2004
Peru	Cold Case	Warner Channel
Philippines	Cold Case	Crime Suspense
Poland	Dowody zbrodni ("Crime Evidence")	TVN and TVN Siedem		Thuesday 10 pm
Portugal	Casos Arquivados ("Archived Cases")	FOX and RTP1
Singapore		Channel 5
Slovakia	Odložený prípad ("Closed (deferred) case")	Markíza
South Africa		M-Net
Spain	Caso Abierto ("Open Case")	TVE and Fox Broadcasting Company	July 14 2004
Sweden	Kalla Spår (SVT) / Cold Case (Kanal 5) ("Cold Traces")	SVT (S1 Only) / Currently airs on Kanal 5	February 19 2005
Thailand		True Series		Wednesday, 10PM
Turkey		CNBC-e and e2
United Kingdom	Cold Case	Sky One (Original airing), Sky Two (re-runs), Sky Three (Freeview airing) and Virgin Media (On Demand)	February 12 2004
Venezuela	Cold Case	Warner Channel

• Warner Bros. Cold Case official site
• "Cold Case" at Yahoo! TV
• Cold Case - TV Wiki at Wikia
• Cold Case : Music at have-dog.com
• Cold Case Music at TuneFind.com